This invention concerns a coal carbonisation test, more especially it concerns a test which gives information on coke micro-reactivity.
Considerable attention is currently being paid to the reactivity to carbon dioxide of carbonised coals or cokes. A favoured test for the reactivity of coke is the Nippon Steel Corporation (NSC) method (COMA Yearbook 1980, 87), involving determining the percentage weight loss of a 200 g sample of a closely sized lump coke (20.+-.1 mm) in carbon dioxide at 1100.degree. C. for 2 hours. A special standard apparatus has been devised for carrying out the NSC method; not only is the apparatus expensive but the method is time-consuming and labour-intensive. Thus to assess a coal or coal blend for commencial use, test cokes have to be prepared and this requires up to one day. Thereafter, the method itself requires skilled laboratory personnel. It would be of considerable assistance to coke oven plant operators if a simpler, quicker and cheaper test could be devised capable of being carried out by relatively unskilled personnel at the plant and enabling plant management to predict and monitor the likely performance of a coal feed or blend on the commercial scale before coke is actually made. It would be most advantageous if any test method could be found to bypass the need to make test cokes in a test or pilot oven. We believe that we have found a quick and simple method which avoids most if not all of the drawbacks of the NSC method, yet gives results which correlate very well with those of the NSC method.